Abstract [en]

Nowadays products and services are produced and delivered by numerous stakeholders, all required to interact with suppliers and customers in an efficient and flexible way. Energy consumption and energy usage environmental impact have become of paramount concern in those activities. Automation technology offers solutions to deal with those challenges. Automation technology as we know it today, however, has got some limitations. The emerging era of the Internet of Things (IoT) with its ease to build complex system of systems (SoS) opens new perspectives in the automation area.In this context, the European project Arrowhead envisions “Collaborative automation by networked embedded devices”. This necessitates a wide interoperability of devices, as well as systems and platforms. The proposed framework provides such interoperability at the service level. The Arrowhead framework efficiently support the development, deployment and operation of interconnected, collaborative systems. Arrowhead cloud automation systems are based on automation devices such as sensors, actuators, controllers, and others transformed into IoT-type of devices and systems adopting the Service Oriented Architecture philosophy. The building elements of a cloud automation system are systems that provide and consume services, and cooperate as systems of systems from which automation services like monitoring, control, optmisation, analysitcs etc are created. The building of complete automation systems is supported by orchestration and authorisation services.The presentation is going to discuss the new automation challenges, and solutions the Arrowhead framework offers.